California Community Colleges

With more than 2.1 million students on 114 campuses, the California Community Colleges (CCC) is the largest system of higher education in the United States. The CCC Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) has provided a number of key facts about these 2.1 million students, including the following:

Over 67% are from diverse ethnic backgrounds
Over 62% attend part-time
Roughly 50% come from California's lowest-income families
Roughly 40% are first-generation
Over 40% are over 25 (already working adults)

High Textbook Costs

The Textbook Affordability Taskforce for SDCCD found:

Nearly 50% of the students reported completing a class without the textbook because they could not afford it
One-third of the students reported dropping a class because they could not afford the textbook
80% of students reported that they have purchased a required textbook that the professor NEVER used

Students report the cost of required textbooks caused:

66.6% Not purchase the required textbook
47.6% Take fewer courses
45.5% Not register for a specific course
37.6% Earn a poor grade
26.1% Drop a course
19.8% Fail a course

The information above came from the Florida Student Textbook Survey. These findings align with the 2016 SDCCD Textbook Survey.